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Petition fights for better Cunnamulla health services

A concerned resident in south-west Queensland says more than 600 people have signed a petition calling for vital health services in Cunnamulla to be reinstated.

Chelsea Clayton says health services have suffered in recent years and residents are calling for more doctors, the reopening of the operating theatre and more antenatal services.

She says while the community is remote, residents should be entitled to quality medical practitioners and facilities, without having to travel hours for simple procedures.

"We want the antenatal nurses to be back at the hospital. We want our theatre to be reopened. We had the best thing running here with our theatre," she said.

"We used to have a flying gynaecologist and a flying surgeon, who still comes here but she only flies in to see the outpatients and then says they have to go to Charleville or Roma to have a simple procedure done.

"We don't have any full-time doctors but we have had this great system where they fly two in and two out.

"There are about 11 of those that we've been having for the last few years. They love coming to Cunnamulla and we love having them.

"A couple of them have been banned from practising in the south-west now because they've asked for certain things."

'Continuous improvement'

Glynis Schultz from the South West Hospital and Health Service says she has visited Cunnamulla to talk to concerned residents but the local hospital is well serviced and fully staffed.

She says while there are no plans to reopen the operating theatre, it is looking at transport options for people needing to travel for surgery, as well as how telehealth could be used.

"In order to open an operating theatre, it is a thing about critical numbers," she said.

"The numbers that we have that need surgery in Cunnamulla are such that the safest and most quality service we can provide is to provide the pre-operative consultation and, unfortunately, have people travel away to Charleville but what we are looking at though is how we can make those trips more supported."

Ms Schultz says it is also working on a fly-in, fly-out model to ensure more continuity of care by doctors.

She says staff are encouraged to go through established processes if they have any concerns.

"Cunnamulla residents get a very, very good service and while I am not prepared to comment on individual contracts, what I would like to say is that we have a culture of continuous improvement and quality and we encourage staff if they have a concern to use the system and processes that are in place across all of Queensland Health, to report those concerns so that we can investigate them," she said.